Thursday, March 19, 2009

Someday I'd Like to be a Part of an Inside Joke

Here's an example of what's important to the Jensen family. Yesterday at work, I was listening to a shared playlist, and what should come up on shuffle but "The Blue Danube" (which, for all you german speakers, should really be called "An der schoenen blauen Donau"). Even if you don't recognize the title, you ALL recognize the music. I like to regard myself as an arbiter of good classical music taste, so it's only natural that I should be familiar with this particular piece of music. But what exactly comes to mind, you may ask, when I hear this music? Is it the German countryside? Is it the Wiener Philharmoniker? French horns and violins? Lullabies? No on all counts. It's football. American football. How in the world did that happen?

When I was little, my family owned a particular videotape entitled "NFL's Greatest Hits". It had an amazing premise, too, with two janitors staying at NFL headquarters late at night to watch great moments in NFL history as shown by a computer named Felix. (well, at least harold was a janitor . . .) Anyway, there were certain clips that were composited together with classical music. And what was one of the pieces used to synchronize with the awesome and graceful movements of 300-pound men hitting each other? "The Blue Danube". So it was the first thing that came to my mind yesterday as I was listening, and I immediately emailed my parents, brothers, and sister.

This has since sparked an email thread that has shot up to 25 emails in the last thirty hours! It's been a combination of line-quoting and attempts at describing exactly how "The Blue Danube" goes (example from kelly's email: "(high voice) dot dot rest dot dot rest"). I'm quite renown among friends and family for having a crazy-good memory, especially for movie lines. They don't know my brothers. In one email in the thread, I asked, "I have forgotten. Who was 'Count Dracula in cleats'?" (a description of a particular player) Craig immediately responded with, "Jack Lambert. Relentless, and remorseless. He considered it his job to hit someone on every play, and there was no one more intimidating." Who knew that two such seemingly opposing forces in the world (classical music and american football) could co-exist so peacefully? And that my family can take part in a discussion quite easily that involves both? That is the beauty of the Jensens. Every time I have gotten another email about it, I just laugh out loud, exclaiming, "I love my family!" We are incredibly unique. It's awesome.

-Megan

"If you ever start feeling like you have the goofiest, craziest, most dysfunctional family in the world, all you have to do is go to the state fair. Because five minutes at the fair, you'll be going, 'You know, we're all right. We are dang near royalty!'" -Jeff Foxworthy